Stylos is the blog of Jeff Riddle, a Reformed Baptist Pastor in North Garden, Virginia. The title "Stylos" is the Greek word for pillar. In 1 Timothy 3:15 Paul urges his readers to consider "how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar (stylos) and ground of the truth."

Friday, January 04, 2019

The Vision (1.4.19): Christ, A Man of Prayer

Image: The "Cenacle," a traditionally suggested site for the Upper Room in Jerusalem.

John alone records Christ’s “High Priestly Prayer” in the
upper room in John 17.

In his Expository Notes
introducing John 17, J. C. Ryle observes: “The chapter we have now begun is the
most remarkable in the Bible. It stands alone, and there is nothing like it.”

Ryle then points out that the Puritan expositor Matthew Henry
observed, “this was a prayer after sermon, a prayer after sacrament, a family
prayer, a parting prayer, a prayer before a sacrifice, a prayer which was a
specimen of Christ’s intercession.”

Calvin notes that “doctrine has no power, if efficacy be not
imparted to it from above.” So, we learn here from Christ’s example here that
the ministry of teaching (doctrine) must be accompanied by the ministry of
prayer.

Christ’s prayer for future disciples (vv. 20-26). Christ
prays for us! This anticipates his intercessory office in this age (Heb 7:25).

Throughout the Gospels Christ appears as a man of prayer.
Typical is Luke 5:16 which says, “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness
and prayed.”

So impressed were his disciples with Christ’s prayer life
that they asked him to instruct them in this spiritual discipline. Luke 11:1:
“And it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one
of his disciples said unto him, Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his
disciples.”

Christ did indeed teach his disciples what we now call the
Lord’s prayer or the model prayer (see Matthew 6:9-13).

And he taught them by example through his spontaneous
prayers. Compare Christ’s spontaneous prayer at the return of the 70 disciples
whom he had sent out: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed
good in thy sight” (Luke 10:21).

Christ even prayed for his enemies
on the cross (see Luke 23:34).

Christ was a man of prayer, and we
his disciples must “follow his steps” and be men and women of prayer also.

By the way, the "TR" is not a "confessional" manuscript. There is not one major Protestant confession that mandates the use of the TR. It's purely a matter of tradition, not confession. Sola Scriptura, however, is a matter of confession. Hence, to continue to use it the TR is to choose tradition over Protestant confessions and the Word of God.

Regarding the TR as a confessional text, have you taken a look at the prooftexts listed in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Second London Baptist Confession (1689)? Which text do they use? Look, for example, at chapter 2 on the Doctrine of God and notice the appeal to 1 John 5:7 (the Johannine Comma)? Take a look also at 1:8 of both confessions. What does this say about their view of Scripture? Is it the modern, reconstructionist view or is it something else (a preservationist view)?

Read the two articles on Scripture in volume 16 of John Owen's Collected Works. Take a look at William Whitaker's "Disputations on Holy Scripture." Then, move on to some modern works. Begin with volume 2 of Richard A. Muller's "Post Reformation Reformed Dogmatics." Then, take up Garnet Howard Milne's recent "Has the Bible Been Kept Pure." You might be surprised by what you find, especially if your previous exposure has only been to Calvinistic evangelical modern critical text proponents like D. A. Carson and James White, etc.